Battle brews over beach access

Black clay mixes with weathered balls of oil tar from BP's 2010 spill in Fourchon Beach's dwindling bed of sand. Flood-protection bags that once stood as high as the beach's sand berms are now partially submerged under the Gulf of Mexico's crashing waves.The beach doesn't look like much of a prize in some places, but it will likely be the subject of a long and costly legal battle as Lafourche Parish seeks to wrest control of beachfront property from its private owners in hopes of opening it to visitors.A parish commission wants to build an RV park, pavilion and pier to make the beach a tourist and vacation destination.But the owners and their neighbors have blasted the parish's planned seizure, citing possible environmental damage and financial irresponsibility. The parish recently gave $275,000 to the South Lafourche Beachfront Development District, which will be offered to the Caillouet Land Corp. for a 44-acre tract on the beachfront at the end of La. 3090.Though it hasn't been offered formally, the Caillouets have promised it will be rejected, which will prompt the district to move to expropriate the land.Caillouet Corp. has been unwilling to sell but has said it is open to an unspecified mutually beneficial outcome, though not expropriation.Expropriation is the legal process a government entity can take to seize land from a private owner for public use in exchange for “just compensation.”Jay Caillouet, administrator for the land corporation, has called the $275,000 offer ridiculously low and promised a legal battle over what is “just compensation.” The court fight could expose the parish to legal fees and whatever the a judge deems to be “just compensation” for the property.Ricky Cheramie, chairman of the development district, said the priority is to allow vehicular traffic on the sand. The beach is more than 10 miles long, but the only road to it doesn't run parallel, so visitors must walk for miles if they want to enjoy the entirety of the stretch, he said.But the Caillouets and representatives of Edward Wisner Donation, a private land trust that owns about 9.5 miles of Fourchon Beach on either side of the Caillouet tract, said driving will cause irreparable harm to an already highly erosive stretch.While expropriating the Caillouet land would give cars a route to reach the beach, visitors wouldn't be able to reach all of it without illegally driving their vehicles on Wisner property. “Give them an inch, they will take a mile,” said said Cathy Norman, manager of the Wisner Donation. “When you have a shoreline that is the last barrier island, you should do everything you can to protect it, and putting cars on it is not protecting it.”Cheramie said the district would have strict rules for beach driving which would stipulate fines for recklessness and driving on dunes, vegetative areas and mudflats. Forrest Travirca, a field inspector for Wisner, said it is impossible to police all of the people driving on dunes and potentially damaging the beach. Cheramie noted every coastal state aside from Mississippi allows some form of beach driving.“Look at this beach,” Travirca said, pointing to signs of erosion. “This isn't like other beaches. It is disappearing fast right in front of us.”Part of the beach is set to see a major restoration with the Army Corps of Engineers' Caminada Headlands Project, which seeks to protect and extend the shoreline 50-80 feet in an area which has been losing about 50 feet a year.But aside from obvious erosion, there are less obvious issues raised by driving that concern Travirca. “That's a real treasure there. It's amazing,” he said as he examined a shard of Native American pottery found by an archaeological contractor on the beach Thursday. Cleanup following the BP oil spill unearthed dozens of primitive weapons, pottery, human and animal bones left by Indians settlements dating to about 700 AD, Travirca said.“How can you possibly protect things like this from people just driving over them?” Travirca said.Migratory and endangered bird species use beach area for nesting and breeding, Travirca said.Cheramie argues the development district has taken both issues into consideration and will have special areas set aside for nesting during the proper season.“We've considered all this and included it in our plans,” Cheramie said. “They will tell you anything to keep you off the beach.” Artifacts of the not-so-distant past still liter the beach in the form of black tar balls that potently make their origin clear when broken up.“This beach is still under heavy cleanup,” Norman said noting contractors for BP began auguring the beach Friday to look for remaining oil from the 2010 spill. Before the spill, the beach was open to pedestrian traffic, but it has since been closed as cleanup continues. “There are so many things to this beach right now, it is just a crying shame all the emphasis on driving on it,” Travirca said.